


A Long Road

by ChangingbacktoBellamort500



Category: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
Genre: Angst, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Torture, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Rape Recovery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-02
Updated: 2020-05-02
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:21:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23957563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChangingbacktoBellamort500/pseuds/ChangingbacktoBellamort500
Summary: Written for the End Game bingo.It has been 6 months, 2 weeks and 3 days since Finn was kidnapped by the GHK. Now she's safe, but it will be a long road to recovery.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 9





	A Long Road

Finn lies in the emergency room bed, her eyes are staring at the ceiling, as if all of life’s answers are there.

DB can’t help noticing her unwashed, unkempt hair, the paleness and thinness of her face since he last saw. The healthy glow of her skin is gone, the smile that could light up the whole room is nowhere to be seen.

At some point she had bitten her nails so short that they were non-existent, the flesh there was angry and red. The marks on wrists are worse. Bruised, scarred flesh, open flesh that is sore and angry.

She didn't make a fuss or wince in pain as the doctor treated them.

There is so much he wants to say to her, things like “I missed you. I never gave up hope on finding you,” but the words won’t come. He doesn’t think she wants or is ready to hear it yet either.

It has been six months, two weeks, and three days since he walked into her apartment to find that Paul Winthrop had been there. He set it up like so many scenes from his previous victims.

Others had written Finn off for dead. Some said it out loud, others didn’t, but he could see it in their eyes. But DB knew she was alive. He was right. All this time he had never given up hope.

This morning 911 had got a call. Finn telling them she had killed Winthrop and where she was, before hanging up. He had arrived there in time to see her being put in the ambulance.

There was a choice between going to the hospital, or processing the scene; he chose the hospital. Greg and Sara were more than capable of processing the scene without him.

The doctor had told him she was around four months pregnant. DB knows that she’s already aware of this. It’s obvious by the way her hand rests on her stomach. It was news that neither he nor the doctor had to break to her. Finn was malnourished, old and new injuries.

He wants to ask, “What hell did he put you through?” but can’t. DB wants to tell her, “Everything is okay now,” yet he can’t say that either.

* * *

“How did Winthrop die?” DB asks Doc Robbins, walking into autopsy. His eyes are immediately drawn to Winthrop's body, the rage he feels for this man burns in his heart and soul like lava through paper.

“At first blush I would have said blunt force trauma, but it was rat poison that killed him first,” Doc Robbins answers. “His head injuries were severe, but the effect of the poison had already kicked in before they happened. How is Finn?”.

DB lets out a sigh, runs his fingers through his hair. "I don’t know. She still wasn’t talking when I left. I’ve dealt with countless victims during my career. I’ve seen them react to their trauma in many ways. But I never thought I’d see it with someone I knew and cared about,”.

No matter how long someone does the job, how many cases they handle, they never can handle seeing someone they know become the victim. Nothing prepares them for it or what to say. Their professionalism gets swept away.

“Finn is tough. With the right support she’ll get through this,” Doc Robbins tells him softly.

No one knows better than him the strength she has, but DB also knows how fragile she is. The hell she’s endured could break the strongest of people.

“Finn is pregnant. We can all guess how that happened,” DB tells him, clenching his fist together until his knuckles turn white.

He wishes Winthrop was alive so he could kill himself. No, he wishes that Paul and Jared had turned out different. That Gig Harbour Killers had never existed. And if that wasn't possible, if their fate was always set stone then he wished he'd protected Finn all those months ago.

"And whatever my mind can conjure up to what she's endured I'm certain it's way worse. I know what he was capable of. You know Greg and Sara said they found five bodies up there,".

Five women buried in shallow graves. All killed within the last six months.

“I know. David is down there now,” Doc Robbins says, leaning on his crutch. “It’s true Finn has been through hell. And right now, she needs you to be strong. She’s the one who has been through it. Her pain triumphs yours, your anger and your guilt. You’re the person she’s closest too in this entire world, and she needs you more now than she ever has,”.

* * *

The air at the lab is sorrowful. There should be joy because Finn has been found. For a moment it does create joy, then they remember where she has been. They remember the five bodies in the morgue; they process a piece of evidence; they look at photos of Finn or where she was being kept then the joy is replaced with anguish.

DB is at his desk thumbing through the photos of where Finn was kept. He looked at his watch, Finn’s mom and brother's plane should land soon.

His eyes return to the photos. A four-bedroom house out of the way with no neighbours around for miles. No one to hear the screams from the basement, the torture room. Winthrop's sadistic paradise.

Winthrop was turning one of the bedrooms into a nursery, the room next door at some point had become Finn's bedroom. There were chains near the headboard and the bottom of the bed, to keep her from escaping.

DB can picture Winthrop growing bored of Finn, torturing the same person over and over would quickly grow tiresome for someone like him. But then Finn becomes pregnant, a chance to replace Jared, a mini version of himself.

He hurts her still, but less,and not enough to harm the baby then he begins to trust her little. In his warped head, they are family. Finn would have sensed this. Used to keep herself alive a little longer.

Winthrop gives her access to the kitchen, the rat poison. DB wonders how many days or weeks it took Finn to work up the courage to use it. When she had and he was weak dying, all that pain and rage coming out hitting him over and over.

He ponders how long after he drew his last breath did she phone 911, he’s listened to the call; her voice is so emotionless that makes his chest hurt hearing it.

A knock on his office door snaps him out of his thoughts, DB puts the photo on the desk face down. “Come in,” He says, rubbing the crick in his neck.

“We have an identity for one victim. Emilia Redcross, twenty-four, disappeared three months ago,” Greg tells him as he walks through the door. “She was an escort; Winthrop most likely hired her services in the past,”.

“Any family to notify?”

“A sister in Florida we are trying to track down,” Greg replies. The younger man shuffles his feet for a few moments before asking, “Morgan, Sara and I were wondering when it would be okay to see Finn. Even Nick is using up his holiday time to come and see her,”.

“I think she’s going to need a few days before she’s up to visitors,” DB answers, truthfully. “I need how much you guys want to see her, I do, but I think it might overwhelm her,”.

* * *

Finn had been moved to a private room; as DB walked up the hospital corridor, he could hear the commotion coming from her room. Doctor Harper pleading for her to calm down. Her mom and brother are doing the same.

“Hey-Hey, what’s going on?” He asks in a calm tone. DB hopes that it will help relax Finn.

“I want to leave. They won’t let me leave,” Finn rambles, pacing a look of distress on her face. At least she was talking, which was more than she was when he was last here. “I just escaped one prison and now you all want to keep me in another word,”.

“Julie, honey,” her mom says softly. “That’s not true. Hospital is the best place for you right now,”.

Finn sensing she won’t get through to her mom or brother to take her side turns to DB, eyes soft and pleading. “I can’t be here. I need to be somewhere I feel safe,”.

“Jules, listen okay sit down on the bed. I’ll talk to the doctor outside and see what can be worked out. But you need to stay calm for the baby,” DB tells her, amazed when she listens.

Once outside the room Doctor Harper sigh with relief. “You know, ideally we would like to keep her here for at least two weeks,”.  
“Would there really be much difference between here and my house?”

“Yes. Her health and unborn child’s health could deteriorate. Miss Finlay’s body has been through a lot, it needs a chance to heal. She needs antibiotics for the infection for her nails, bandage changes for her wrists and ankles. Injuries on her back that need monitoring to make sure they don’t get infected,” Doctor Harper explains rubbing her temple.

“If you tell me what needs to be done, I can do those things. I know Finn she’ll find a way out of here, in her state of mind do you really think her doing that alone is wise?” DB is determined to get Finn out of here. He could do nothing to change the past, but he can help her in the present. “It seems to me her mental health is more fragile than her physical health. If there was any deterioration, I would bring her straight here,”.

“Legally, there is nothing we can do to stop her from discharging herself. Only advise against it,”.

* * *

The car ride is silent. Finn’s mom and brother were back at their hotel. DB hadn't told her that Barbara was staying with Maya for a little. He didn’t tell her it was because their marriage was on the verge of collapse. She didn’t need his baggage added onto her shoulders.

Once at his house, he offers to make her something to eat. She just shakes her head. “What I want is a nice hot shower. But my bandages will get wet so I guess it’s a sink wash for the time being. Will you help me wash my hair?”

“Of course. Now or later,” DB asks. He’ll do anything that keeps her calm, that helps her.

"Now please. It will make me feel more human,".

The way she says it breaks his heart.

“Okay. I’ll wash it in the kitchen sink,” He tells her, dragging a chair over and placing it there. Before putting the plug in and running the tap. Grateful he was barely home the last few weeks to make it messy. “You sit there, and I’ll grab some shampoo and conditioner. And a towel,".

She does. But the way she sits, compliant and stiff. It makes him want to cry. DB doesn't, he won't in front of her.

He washes her hair as gently as can; he watches dirt and blood wash away on her scalp; he notes minor injuries where Winthrop must have dug his nails into her head. Finn’s hand rests against her stomach. A primal instinct to protect her baby from a danger that doesn’t exist within that house.

It’s going to be a long road back for her. But he’ll be there every step of the way for her and the baby. None of it will be easy. He can’t magic away her pain as much as would like to, but he can try to make things easier for her.

Winthrop might be dead, but the terrible things he did will live on.

But Finn's a fighter. The strongest woman he's ever known. He knows she'll travel that long road back through sheer stubbornness.


End file.
